A Campus Building Boom

September 25, 1991

Universities and colleges are seldom thought of in real estate terms, as developers or tenants. Yet they are both-in a big way.

At a time when commercial development is limited and real estate firms scrap for every fee-generating assignment they can get, colleges and universities in the Chicago area, including those highlighted throughout this magazine and located in the map on this page, find their chalkboards full of large-scale plans.

``Education is less volatile than a good many other businesses, like automobiles or homes, and so we plan over a longer period of time,`` said Rev. Raymond Baumhart, S.J., president of Loyola University. ``That`s the reason we haven`t curtailed our building the way for-profit companies have.``

Of importance to the real estate community is the extent to which colleges and universities employ expertise from the private sector, from hiring architects and contractors for new buildings, to becoming partners on complex developments.

Yet in a much broader sense, the impact of our educational institutions extends beyond their own borders, past the classrooms and dormitories they build for themselves, reaching into the economic health and social vitality of the communities in which they reside.